Gamble alert: Paul Nicholls runner backed into 5/1f from 11/1 at Aintree

Aintree’s Grand National Festival is one of the highlights on the calendar, not just for the quality racing, but the competitive betting also. It’s Day 1 on Thursday and Paul Nicholls has a runner which has been subject to sustained market support. As big as 11/1 on Wednesday, the horse in question is now the 5/1 favourite.

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4.40 Aintree

Sans Bruit was bitterly disappointing in the Imperial Cup at Sandown on his penultimate start and was well beaten back in 12th. Switching to fences seemed to help at Chepstow last time out however and he put in a significantly improved performance to finish second.

He won plenty of races in France and is perhaps taking some time to fully acclimatise to life in Britain. There should be plenty of improvement to come, as he can build on that latest effort. The challenge at hand will be a tough one but he’s racing off a feather weight of 10st 2lb which could be a big help in the testing conditions.

Paul Nicholls has a good history with French imports and it’s highly unlikely that we’ve seen the best of Sans Bruit yet. This is certainly an interesting market move and it’ll be fascinating to see how the horse gets on.

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